Confucius taught of how one is to govern themselves, and how the state is to govern society. The ways of governing can be seen in the traditions of forefathers. By returning to these, society can be virtuous and harmonious. Government is seen as a tool to help bring out the best of its people. Confucius saw it as responsible for the well being of its citizens but insists that they not forget their individual roles themselves. In order to properly carry out its role, government must be looked upon by its people for leadership and be respected. It must not lose the faith of its people.

80% of citizens do not trust government (July 2011),
a massive change in 3-5 decades, indicating declining legitimacy

In 2011, 80% had a low respect for Congress,
and 71% had low respect for the President.
58% have low respect for the media.

July 2011 Rasmussen national survey finds 46% of Likely U.S. Voters view most members of Congress as corrupt. Just 29% think most members are not corrupt, and another 25% are not sure. Similarly, a whopping 85% of voters think most members of Congress are more interested in helping their own careers than in helping other people.

78% believe the federal government has too much power;also, state & local governments are increasing their power each year, as their employees grow in numbers faster than the general population – reaching a historic high ratio last year.

Trust in government correlates to trust in certain professionals > > lawyers and news professionals:

Most federal & state legislators are lawyers, yet Citizen Trust in the Honesty & Ethics of lawyers has declined to new lows. Is there a coincidence that while the USA leads the world in lawyers per capita (see graphic below) it also leads in trade deficits and lags in quality health care and education?

And – Citizen Trust for honesty and ethics for News Professionals also declined to a new low – –
– yet citizens depend on news professionals to monitor government and report unbiased news,
although 96% believe it’s their duty to ‘educate’ the public, instead of simply providing balanced and unbiased news, yet at election time 89% of those reporting news vote for the political party most aligned with ‘big government’.

In the praxis of hegemony, the leader state (hegemon) formally establishes indirect imperial dominance (rule) by means of cultural imperialism, which dictates the internal politics and societal character of the sub-ordinate states that constitute the hegemonic sphere of influence. The imposition of the hegemon’s way of life — its language (as the imperial lingua franca) and bureaucracies (social, economic, educational, governing) — transforms the concrete imperialism of direct military domination into the abstract power of the status quo, indirect imperial domination. Referenced from Ross Hassig, Mexico and the Spanish Conquest (1994), pp. 23–24. In the event, rebellion (social, political, economic, armed) is eliminated either by co-optation of the rebels or by suppression (police and military), without direct intervention by the hegemon; the examples are the latter-stage Spanish and British empires, and the unified Germany. Referenced from Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (1984), pp. 137-138: “European coalitions were likely to arise to contain Germany’s Nazis growing, potentially dominant, power”; p.145: “Unified Germany was achieving the strength to dominate Europe all by itself — an occurrence which Great Britain had always resisted in the past when it came about by conquest”. http://www.facebook.com/notbyforce

The first week of March 2012 the current National Defense Authorization Act goes into effect under the pretense of funding ongoing military operations. It is being argued by its proponents that we need to allow this poorly written budgeting act in order to maintain our military spending to ensure “National Security”. This legislation looks like the new method for funding the Military Industrial War Complex as well as tying the topic of safety to how much money the Pentagon spends on that effort. It also looks as if we are bringing that war inside US borders in order to continue and obviously increase spending based on perceived threats? Some could even go as far to say that those threats are creations of our own Intelligence services. When did we allow fear to dictate our legislative policies and military budgets? Benjamin Franklin stated it best “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Is that not what we are trading here?

This expansion of Executive authority to order the imprisonment by the military away from any battlefield and on US soil goes against all the protections of due process that is provided through Habeas Corpus. Our nation was founded on the rule of law to allow those suspected of committing crimes to be heard in court to determine the truth through the legal process. This sweeping detention power violates the constitution and degrades the rule of law that many before us have fought to preserve. Section[s] 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA does not even require allegations that the detained individual(s) cause any harm or threat of harm. This vague definition of hostilities can be interpreted by the executive branch in such a way that it could be anyone, anywhere that would potentially pose a risk to US interests or the US itself. We cannot allow our government to lock people up indefinitely based solely on suspicion or perhaps simple dissent to current policy.

I believe that protections of inalienable rights are much more important than any other issue we face as a free nation. I am more afraid of the current political control that our government is passing along to the military. Who will protect us from our military?

Most of us have no idea how to be heard as constituents and feel our only voice is at the voting booth, but our responsibilities must not stop there. The political process is much more important than to stop at that obligation alone and many issues will arise in between elections.
As voters we need to follow through with our individual oversight of elected officials even if they were not the candidate that we voted into office, otherwise the paid lobbyists will command our elected officials attention.
​How is a representative to know the populous consensus if we are not giving them our opinions on issues that affect our way of life? We are all capable of identifying problems and many of us have great ideas that would include compromise. A complaint or identification of the problem is the first step in determining what is wrong and one step closer to a solution. Now to gain support for your solution you must take the next step by contacting your elected official. The standard method is to write your State House Representative if your issue is local to their district or Senate leaders if it is an issue that may involve the state as a whole. When writing your letter you must consider that we are talking to someone who we want to gain the respect from and who we need to understand our position and how it affects us and our community.
Writing your elected official is the way you should start before asking to meet in person. We can fine tune what we want to say by thinking it through without the nervousness of being on stage and having unlimited time to compose our words so that it is coherent. Compliment them and let him or her know that you understand that they have a tough job to do. Also acknowledge any vote that they may have cast that supports your topic of discussion or that you were also in favor of. Next step is to make your point by highlighting the facts of the issue and how your solution will be in the best interest of not only you but the rest of the population. This will be how you will influence your congress member by creating a benefit to the majority.

List of characteristics a police officer must possess to have integrity.

Prudence: the ability to discern between conflicting virtues and decide the best action to take

Trust: loyalty and truthfulness in relationships between officers and citizens, fellow officers, and supervisors

Effacement of self-interests: without this, officers may exploit their authority to further themselves

Courage: the mean between cowardice and foolhardinessIntellectual honesty: not knowing something and being humble and courageous enough to admit it

Justice: not in its normal context, but, rather, adjusting what is owed to a particular citizen even when it may contradict what is strictly owed

Responsibility: intending to do the right thing, clearly understanding what the right thing is, and being fully aware of other alternatives that may exist; taking responsibility, rather than finding excuses for mistakes or poor judgment

The troops do not equal freedom of speech. Most wars are intelligence engineered quagmires to keep the industrial war machine perpetuating profits based on ripping off the government and american people. BBC claims that Al Queda was a Jihadist data base created during the afghan war to help with protection of resources so that Russia wouldn’t get it first. All wars are resource grabs and not for protection of freedoms. Wouldn’t you think freedoms would be more respected if that was why we engage in war? War is violent and those are your police officers after they are discharged. I love this country too much to be misled by outside interests that are only concerned with financial gain.

The false left right paradigm concept is a political theory that alleges that members of the two opposing political parties, Republican and Democratic, share common interests and goals, as well as a covertly unified ruling authority over the political issues of the masses. The two major political entities act in concert to create divisiveness among the population while keeping control of the political spectrum. It also theorizes that the two opposing political parties utilize their tremendous hold over mainstream media to dramatize political distractions and engage in covert warfare and operations, in grand performances of bureaucratic rivalry meant to propagandize and divide the populace. Divisive issues are purposefully fed through the major media outlets to divert attention away from the ruling class’s hidden agendas. By drawing attention to the differences between the two embedded political systems, ideologies, races and classes, the political groups obscure political clarity and divide unity among the masses. The tactic creates confusion and frustration among the population, which enables the ruling class to increase and consolidate their wealth and power through maintaining an illusion of a two-party system of checks and balances that actually works. Alternatively, with as much attention, the money that drives these politicians to deceive the public into thinking that they are top priority, needs to be banned from the process of incentives.

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. …We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. …In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons…who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.”
― Edward Bernays, Propaganda